Related papers: Stein trisections and homotopy 4-balls

We show that a smooth embedding of a closed 3-manifold in S^3 x R can be isotoped so that every generic level divides S^3 x t into two handlebodies (i.e., is Heegaard) provided the original embedding has a unique local maximum with respect…

We prove a generalization of the second variation formula of the Robin function associated to a smooth variation of domains in C^N to the case of the c-Robin function associated to a smooth variation of domains in a complex manifold M…

Given a closed, smooth 4-manifold $X$ and self-diffeomorphism $f$ that is topologically pseudo-isotopic to the identity, we study the question of whether $f$ is moreover smoothly pseudo-isotopic to the identity. If the fundamental group of…

Using 1-twist rim surgery, we construct infinitely many smoothly embedded, orientable surfaces in the 4-ball bounding a knot in the 3-sphere that are pairwise topologically isotopic, but not ambient diffeomorphic. We distinguish the…

A conformal metric on a 4-ball induces on the boundary 3-sphere a conformal metric and a trace-free second fundamental form. Conversely, such a data on the 3-sphere is the boundary of a unique selfdual conformal metric, defined in a…

We study the rational homotopy types of classifying spaces of automorphism groups of smooth simply connected manifolds of dimension at least five. We give dg Lie algebra models for the homotopy automorphisms and the block diffeomorphisms of…

This paper studies properly embedded surfaces in the 4-ball that are exotically knotted (i.e., topologically but not smoothly isotopic), and leverages this local phenomenon to study surfaces in larger 4-manifolds. The main results provide a…

The main aim of this paper is to study existence and stability properties of rotationally symmetric proper biharmonic maps between two $m$-dimensional models (in the sense of Greene and Wu). We obtain a complete classification of…

We complete the classification of the smooth, closed, oriented 4-manifolds having Euler characteristic less than four and a horizontal handlebody decomposition of genus one. We use the classification result to find a large family of…

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a closed smooth 6-manifold N to be diffeomorphic to a product of a surface F and a simply connected 4-manifold M in terms of basic invariants like the fundamental group and cohomological data.…

The purpose of this article is to investigate Bach-flat critical metrics of the volume functional on a compact manifold $M$ with boundary $\partial M.$ Here, we prove that a Bach-flat critical metric of the volume functional on a simply…

We construct an invariant of closed ${\rm spin}^c$ 4-manifolds using families of Seiberg-Witten equations. This invariant is formulated as a cohomology class on a certain abstract simplicial complex consisting of embedded surfaces of a…

We use hyperbolic geometry to construct simply-connected symplectic or complex manifolds with trivial canonical bundle and with no compatible Kahler structure. We start with the desingularisations of the quadric cone in C^4: the smoothing…

A major challenge in the study of the structure of the three-dimensional homology cobordism group is to understand the interaction between hyperbolic geometry and homology cobordism. In this paper, for a hyperbolic homology sphere $Y$ we…

We prove that, for a closed oriented smooth spin 4-manifold $X$ with non-zero signature, the Dehn twist about a $(+2)$- or $(-2)$-sphere in $X$ is not homotopic to any finite order diffeomorphism. In particular, we negatively answer the…

We show how self-referential discs in 4-manifolds lead to the construction of pairs of discs with a common geometrically dual sphere which are homotopic rel $\partial$, concordant and coincide near their boundaries, yet are not properly…

In this paper we address some questions about symmetry, radial monotonicity, and uniqueness for a semilinear fourth-order boundary value problem in the ball of $\mathbb R^2$ deriving from the Kirchhoff-Love model of deformations of thin…

We describe a procedure to construct infinite sets of pairwise smoothly inequivalent 2-spheres in simply connected 4-manifolds, which are topologically isotopic and whose complement has a prescribed fundamental group that satisfies some…

Let $\pi$ be a group satisfying the Farrell-Jones conjecture and assume that $B\pi$ is a 4-dimensional Poincar\'e duality space. We consider topological, closed, connected manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$ whose canonical map to $B\pi$…

We prove that a four-dimensional Lorentzian manifold that is curvature homogeneous of order 3, or $\CH_3$ for short, is necessarily locally homogeneous. We also exhibit and classify four-dimensional Lorentzian, $\CH_2$ manifolds that are…